According to reports the new iPhone 3G S's are overheating enough to discolor the plastic from white to pink or brown. The iPod Touches and iPhone 3G's are also suffering lesser heat issues, indicating firmware may be partially responsible. Apple has released no official word on the widespread reports. (Source: Le Journal du Geek)

Apple's iPhone 3G S takes the heat

Apple boldly advertises the slogan "It just works", but Apple has its share of issues just like any other tech company. Among the recent problems included Mac display issues (which have been ongoing for over a year) and iPhone signal issues (also a year old problem).

Now another familiar problem has been reported. Apple's hot new iPhone is not just getting hot figuratively, it's getting hot literally. Reports of Apple's handsets turning toasty and colorizing from white to a toasty brown or rosy pink have been widely reported.

Reportedly, the phones are more likely to overheat when playing games or using the GPS. The iPhone 3G S packs a much faster CPU and graphics processor than its predecessor, a likely source of the heating issues. However, Apple thus far has denied the reports and refused to comment that there is a problem with the handsets.

Melissa J. Perenson of PC World is among those whose iPhone 3G S is overheating. She writes, "And at some point, I became aware the handset had become very hot. Very, very hot — not just on the back, but the entire length of the front face, too. I was using a game, and then later the Web browser for reading the news about Michael Jackson, all over a Wi-Fi connection while plugged in. And in those circumstances, well…toasty doesn’t even describe how surprisingly hot it got. It was too hot to even put the phone against my face. No discoloration to report, though; I have the black handset, and didn’t see any effects."

OS power management also may be to blame. Reportedly, iPhones and iPod touches upgraded to the new OS v3.0 have also been heating up. Writes Wired.com's Charlie Sorrel, "To add to the confusion, I have noticed my 2G iPod Touch getting a lot hotter than usual since updating to the v3.0 software. This happens while web browsing, and the battery is draining fast, too. I have no idea if this is related, but if it is it could point at some bad power-management software in OS 3.0."

Ultimately, it may be a combination of hardware and firmware power management that's causing the new iPhone to overload.

"So, I think the same thing of the music industry. They can't say that they're losing money, you know what I'm saying. They just probably don't have the same surplus that they had." -- Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA